Tax Reform is Working for Middle-Class Americans

One of the largest successes of the last year is undoubtedly tax reform. The massive tax cuts package passed by Congress and signed by the President is a remarkable achievement – the largest tax cuts and simplification of the often bewildering tax code in decades.

Indeed, whether it is tax reform, the economy, or within the realm of international affairs, it is clear that one of this Administration’s greatest gifts are its enemies who continue to underestimate its accomplishments.

This observation is richly reinforced despite complaints from often wealthy left-wing politicians and commentators falsely claiming that tax cuts only benefit the rich or that workers will only receive crumbs from tax reform.  In fact, the Washington Post directly debunks these left-wing claims. In short, these claims represent a deliberate and intentional deception by individuals who refuse to face facts and instead hold onto their tired, baseless narrative. This narrative refuses to acknowledge that average Americans including families in the bottom three quintiles—earning less than $86,000 per year—receive a tax cut.

Yet, facts are stubborn things. Beyond the direct benefits of tax cuts for the bottom three quintiles of American families, which include a doubling of the standard deduction, lower tax rates, and a doubling of the child-tax credit, the headlines, each and every day, show that tax reform is delivering additional measurable benefits for working Americans.

Just this week, Apple announced that it was joining with a blizzard of firms, including major employers like Walmart, that are repatriating billions in profits from abroad for purposes of capital investment in the United States, giving significant bonuses to their employees, and raising wages for up to 2 million American workers so far. Americans for Tax Reform offers a continuously updated, growing list here. 

One report indicates that in addition to the $38 billion Apple Inc. will pay to bring profits held abroad home, it will invest $30 billion in capital spending in the U.S. over five years, which will fuel the creation of 20,000 jobs. It is estimated that repatriation taxes paid by these multi-national firms on profits held abroad will approach or exceed $250 billion and $1.6 trillion dollars of profits returning to this country. These are the so-called “crumbs” of tax reform.

As more and more companies create jobs, increase their investment in capital equipment spending, and give raises and bonuses to their workers, it is becoming increasingly difficult to reconcile the hysterical claims by opponents of tax reform with the reality. As new withholding tables have now been prepared by the Internal Revenue Service and are expected to be implemented by payroll software and individual business by mid-to-late February of this year, the evidence that tax reform has delivered benefits to the middle class will be undeniable.

This is a narrative that middle class and working-class Americans understand: more money in their pocket every month. Unlike deceptive claims by left-wing politicians and commentators, they can take this narrative to the bank.